Condenser and radiator of air conditioning refrigeration system

ABSTRACT

The present invention provides a radiator or condenser used in an air conditioning system. The radiator comprises at least one radiator unit, wherein the radiator unit includes at least two lobes, two of the at least two lobes facing to and hermetically attaching to each other, and at least one through hole disposed in the middle part of the two lobes along the height thereof. The present invention also provides a radiator unit or condenser unit used to form the radiator or condenser.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims priority benefit of China application No. 200610122167.0 filed on Sep. 15, 2006, the contents of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a condenser and a radiator used in an air conditioning refrigeration system, and more particularly, to a condenser unit and a radiator unit used to form the condenser and the radiator.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

It is known that the refrigeration principle of a vehicle is the same as that of a home air conditioner, which makes use of instant rapid volume expansion of refrigerating medium, such as R12 or R134a in the manner of compression releasing, to absorb a large mount of heat from ambience. Besides a compression pump, a condenser shown in FIG. 1A and a radiator shown in FIG. 1B are both important parts of an air-conditioning system. Although they are differently named, their structures are similar to each other. Up to now, the following kinds of configurations are available for a condenser or a radiator, to achieve heat exchanging between the refrigerating medium in the tube and the air outside. A kind of configuration is shown in FIG. 2A, in which a lot of metal sheets for heat radiating are disposed on a row of curve copper tubes. Another kind is shown in FIG. 2D, in which a single aluminum sheet passes through a stack of porous ribbon-shaped strips shown in FIG. 1B, which are made of aluminum. Or, an organ-shaped assembly consisted of lots of foldable aluminum sheets of FIG. 2B, is soldered to a copper tube of FIG. 2C, or is soldered to a flat aluminum sheet of FIG. 2D. These manufacture processes are commonly named as assembling (see FIGS. 2A-B and 2E). In such kinds of heat exchange devices, there are following shortages.

1. The heat transferring contact surface or contact point between the curve copper tubes or porous ribbon-shaped strips of aluminum alloy and the aluminum sheet are all formed by means of soldering. In addition, each welded contact point is subject to breakage due to the long period of heat/cold temperature exchanging, so that it is prone to forming gap between the copper tubes or aluminum ribbon-shaped strips and the aluminum sheet assembly. Thus, dust borne in air will enter into the gap to gradually fill up the space, and then the heat radiating efficiency will be lowered greatly.

2. The curve tubes need to be bended for several times, and further need to be soldered together with aluminum sheets, thus, the walls of the tubes could not be too thick. As the walls are thin, it could not bear high pressure. Therefore, the curve tubes are subject to perforation or breakage after high pressure refrigerating medium flows therein, which may affect the efficiency of air conditioning, and reduce life span of the air conditioner

3. When absorbing air indoor or outside into the condenser or compressor, the wind path system in the air conditioner will often absorb the dust together with air, thus, the welded grid will be blocked after a period of time. During the course of periodical maintenance, the refrigerating medium is subject to leaking into the air, which pollutes the environment.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

With respect to the above problems, one of the objects of the present invention is to provide a radiator used in an air conditioning refrigeration system, comprising at least one radiator unit, wherein the radiator unit includes at least two lobes, two of the at least two lobes facing to and hermetically attaching to each other, and at least one through hole disposed in the middle part of the two lobes along the height thereof.

In a preferred embodiment, the radiator unit may be formed integrally, and each of the lobes may have tooth-like outside surface, and each of the through holes may have corrugated inner wall.

Furthermore, the radiator comprises two or more radiator units arranged side by side, and the radiator further comprises an inlet port disposed on the first radiator unit to make refrigerating medium flow into the first radiator unit, an outlet port disposed on the last radiator unit to make the refrigerating medium flow out of the last radiator unit, and a upper one-way channel and a lower one-way channel attached to their respective radiator units for communicating one radiator unit with one of its neighbor, to make the refrigerating medium flow from the inlet port to the outlet port in one direction.

In addition, the upper one-way channel and the lower one-way channel may have a number of grooves on the surface opposite to the radiator units to which they attached, the inner space of the channel is separated by several spacers to form a number of passages for the refrigerating medium and is blocked by several block pieces to divide the grooves into several two-groove sets. The number of the grooves corresponds to the number of radiator units to which the upper one-way channel attached, and the number of the passages corresponds to the number of the through holes of the radiator units.

In another aspect the present invention provide a condenser used in an air conditioning refrigeration system, comprising at least one condenser unit, wherein the condenser unit includes at least two lobes, two of the at least two lobes facing to and hermetically attaching to each other, and at least one through hole disposed in the middle part of the two lobes along the height thereof.

In a preferred embodiment, the condenser unit may be formed integrally, and each of the lobes may have tooth-like outside surface, and each of the through holes may have corrugated inner wall.

In still another aspect, the present invention provide a radiator unit used to form a radiator, comprising at least two lobes, two of the at least two lobes facing to and hermetically attaching to each other, and at least one through hole disposed in the middle part of the two lobes along the height thereof.

The present invention also provide a condenser unit used to form a condenser, comprising at least two lobes, two of the at least two lobes facing to and hermetically attaching to each other, and at least one through hole disposed in the middle part of the two lobes along the height thereof.

Since the radiator unit or condenser unit used to for the radiator or condenser of air conditioning system could be formed integrally, no soldering process or bending process is needed. Furthermore, since the through holes in the radiator unit or condenser unit could be formed integrally, the thermal impedance will be very low, and well heat transferring will be achieved. In addition, since the through holes have corrugated walls, the area of heat exchanging is greatly increased, then the efficiency of heat exchanging and radiating will be highly improved. Therefore, the radiator or condenser of the present invention would be of energy efficiency. Furthermore, since the through holes are formed integrally together with the whole radiator unit or condenser unit, there is no welding process or bending process, and then the through holes would not be broken to cause leakage of the refrigerating medium. Therefore, the life span of the radiator or condenser of the present invention could be greatly improved. In addition, since the radiator unit or condenser unit of the present invention could be made of aluminum or aluminum alloy instead of copper, the manufacturing cost of such units will be lowered greatly.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above aspects and features of the present invention will be more apparent by describing certain exemplary embodiments of the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1A-B are schematic views of a condenser of the prior art;

FIG. 2A-E are schematic views of a radiator of the prior art;

FIG. 3 is a schematic front view of a radiator according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the radiator shown in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a left view of the radiator shown in FIG. 3;

FIG. 6 is a schematic view of the radiator of FIG. 3 incorporated an inlet pipe and an outlet pipe;

FIG. 7 is a left view of the radiator shown in FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is a back view of the radiator shown in FIG. 6;

FIG. 9 is a perspective view of the radiator shown in FIG. 6;

FIG. 10 is schematic section view of the radiator shown in FIG. 3, showing the operation principle thereof;

FIG. 11 is schematic section view of a radiator according to another embodiment of the present invention, showing the operation principle thereof;

FIG. 12 is a perspective view of one embodiment of the radiator unit of FIG. 3;

FIG. 13 is a front view of the radiator unit shown in FIG. 12;

FIG. 14 is a left view of the radiator unit shown in FIG. 12;

FIG. 15 is a top view of the radiator unit shown in FIG. 12;

FIG. 16 is a perspective view of another embodiment of the radiator unit of FIG. 3;

FIG. 17 is a front view of the radiator unit shown in FIG. 16;

FIG. 18 is a left view of the radiator unit shown in FIG. 16;

FIG. 19 is a top view of the radiator unit shown in FIG. 16;

FIG. 20 is a front section view of the upper one-way channel of FIG. 3;

FIG. 21 is a partial section view of the one-way channel shown in FIG. 20;

FIG. 22 is a left section view of the one-way channel shown in FIG. 20;

FIG. 23 is a front section view of the lower one-way channel of FIG. 3;

FIG. 24 is a partial section view of the one-way channel shown in FIG. 23; and

FIG. 25 is a left section view of the one-way channel shown in FIG. 23.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

With reference to the accompanied figures, the embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail as follows. The present invention relates to a condenser and a radiator used in air conditioning refrigeration system. As the structure of the condenser is similar to that of the radiator, the structure of the radiator will be described as an example in the following.

FIGS. 3-5 show one embodiment of the radiator of the present invention. The radiator 1 comprises a number of radiator units 2, an upper one-way channel 3, a lower one-way channel 4, an inlet port 5 and an outlet port 6. The upper one-way channel 3 is mounted on the upper end of the radiator units 2, and the lower one-way 4 on the lower end thereof. The inlet port 5 and the outlet port 6 are disposed on the two outmost radiator units 2, respectively.

As shown in FIG. 3, the number of the radiator units is six. However, a single radiator unit together with an inlet port and an outlet port could also form a radiator, and such radiator does not need upper and lower one-way channels. Furthermore, the number of the radiator units could also be two, three or more, to form the radiator of the present invention.

With reference to FIGS. 6 to 9, the radiator 1 is provided with an inlet pipe 7 and an outlet pipe 8. The refrigerating medium flows into the radiator 1 via the inlet pipe 7, and flows out of the radiator via the outlet pipe 8.

FIG. 10 is a section view of the radiator 1, which shows the operation principle of the radiator 1 in detail. As shown in FIG. 10, the refrigerating medium flows into the radiator 1 through the inlet port 5, and flows out of the radiator through the outlet port 6. Inside the radiator 1, the refrigerating medium first flows into the through holes of the first radiator unit on which the inlet port 5 is disposed. And then, the refrigerating medium flows into the through holes of the second radiator unit adjacent to the first radiator unit via the lower one-way channel 4. After that, the refrigerating medium flows out of the second radiator unit, and flows into the third radiator unit adjacent to the second radiator unit via the upper one-way channel 3, and so on. At last, the refrigerating medium flows out of the last radiator unit via the outlet port 6.

FIG. 11 is a section view of another embodiment of the radiator of the present invention. Except that the radiator shown in FIG. 11 comprises eight radiator units, the structure and operation principle of the radiator is similar to that of the radiator shown in FIG. 3.

Next, the structure of the radiator unit 2 will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 12 to 15. As shown in FIG. 12, the radiator unit 2 consists of two lobes 21. The two lobes 21 face to and hermetically attach to each other. The lobes could attach to each other by means of welding or any other means known in the prior art, to form an integral body of the radiator unit 2. The radiator unit 2 could also be formed integrally be means of integral molding. Each lobe 21 may have tooth-like outside surface 22, to increase the area of heat radiating. In the middle part of the lobes 21, a number of through holes 23 are disposed along the height of the lobes 21. The through holes 23 are separated from each other. Each of the through holes 23 may have corrugated inner walls 4, to increase the area of heat exchanging. In FIG. 12, the number of the through holes 23 is five. However, the radiator unit could only have a single through hole, or could have more than one through holes.

FIGS. 16 to 19 show another embodiment of the radiator unit of the present invention. Compared with the radiator unit of FIG. 12, the radiator unit 2′ of FIG. 16 consists of four lobes 21′, to increase the area of heat radiating. At least two lobes of the four lobes face to and hermetically attach to each other, and the other two could be attached to the former two lobes in any manner, that is, the other two lobes may face to each other and be perpendicular to the former two lobes, as shown in FIG. 16. Or, the latter two may not face with each other and could be inclined with respect to the former two lobes. The lobes could be connected by means of welding or any other means known in the prior art, to form an integral body of the radiator unit 2′. The radiator unit 2′ could also be formed by means of integral molding. Each lobe 21′ has tooth-like outside surface 22′, to increase the area of heat radiating. In the middle part of the two lobes facing to each other, a number of through holes 23′ are disposed along the height of the lobes 21′. The through holes 23′ are separated from each other. Each of the through holes 23′ may have corrugated inner walls 4′, to increase the area of heat exchanging. In FIG. 16, the number of the through holes 23′ is two. However, the radiator unit could only have a single through hole, or could have more than one through holes.

Although not shown in the figures, the number of lobes in a radiator unit could also be three, five or more than five. At least two lobes of all the lobes face to and hermetically attach to each other, and the other lobes could be connected to the former two lobes in any manner as mentioned above.

The radiator unit 2, 2′ could be made of aluminum, aluminum alloy or any other material with high thermal conductivity, such as copper, copper alloy, iron.

FIGS. 20 to 22 show the upper one-way channel 3 of FIG. 3. The upper one-way channel 3 is sealed on both ends, and has a number of grooves 31 on the surface opposite to the radiator units 2. The number of the grooves 31 corresponds to the number of the radiator units to which the upper one-way channel 3 is attached. As shown in FIG. 3, the upper one-way channel 3 is attached to four radiator units, thus, the number of the grooves 31 is four, as shown in FIG. 20. The inner space of the upper one-way channel 3 is separated by several spacers 34, to form several passages 32 for the refrigerating medium. The spacers 34 also separate each of the grooves 31 into several apertures 35. The number of the passages 32 and the apertures 35 of each groove 31 is identical to that of the through holes 23 of the radiator unit 2, respectively. Inside of each passage 32, a block piece 33 is inserted to divide all of the grooves 31 into several two-groove sets. One groove of each two-groove set is an inlet of the refrigerating medium, and the other groove is an outlet.

FIGS. 23 to 25 show the lower one-way channel 4 of FIG. 3. The lower one-way channel 4 is sealed on both ends, and has a number of grooves 41 on the surface opposite to the radiator units 2. The number of the grooves 41 corresponds to the number of the radiator units to which the lower one-way channel 4 is attached. As shown in FIG. 3, the lower one-way channel 4 is attached to six radiator units, thus, the number of the grooves 41 is six, as shown in FIG. 23. The inner space of the lower one-way channel 4 is separated by several spacers 44, to form several passages 42 for the refrigerating medium. The spacers 44 also separate each of the grooves 41 into several apertures 45. The number of the passages 42 and the apertures 45 of each groove 41 is identical to that of the through holes 23 of the radiator unit 2, respectively. Inside of each passage 42, several block pieces 33 are inserted to divide all of the grooves 31 into several two-groove sets. One groove of each two-groove set is an inlet of the refrigerating medium, and the other groove is an outlet.

As mentioned above, the number of the radiator units could be arbitrary. In order to fit for the number of the radiator units, the upper one-way channel or the lower one-way channel could be modified to consist of more or less grooves and block pieces. The number of the apertures of the upper one-way channel or the lower one-way channel could also be changed to correspond to the number of the through holes of the radiator units. Furthermore, the radiator could be turned upside down, that is, the inlet port and the outlet port could be mounted on the lower end of the radiator, and then the original upper one-way channel will be attached to the lower end of the respective radiator units, and the original lower one-way channel will be attached to the upper end of the respective radiator units. What is more, the inlet port and the outlet port could be mounted on the opposite end of the radiator.

Since each radiator unit forms an integral body, the assembling of the radiator will become easy. When the requirement of the heat radiating capacity of the radiator is different, the number of the radiator units could be varied accordingly, thus, the assembling labor of the radiator will be greatly decreased. Furthermore, the tooth-like outside surface of the lobes and the corrugated inner walls of the through holes of the radiator units could increase the area of heat exchanging and heat radiating, thus, the efficiency of the whole radiator will be improved greatly.

As mentioned above, since the structure of a condenser of the present invention is similar to that of a radiator of the present invention, the skilled in this art should appreciate that the radiators shown in FIGS. 3 to 11 and radiator units shown in FIGS. 12 to 19 could also be used as condensers and condenser units, respectively, except for their different names.

As those of skill in this art will appreciate, many modifications, substitutions and variations can be made in the materials, units and configurations of the present invention without departing from its spirit and scope. In light of this, the scope of the present invention should not be limited to that of the particular embodiments illustrated and described herein, as they are only exemplary in nature, but instead, should be fully commensurate with that of the claims appended hereafter and their functional equivalents. 

1. A radiator used in an air conditioning refrigeration system, comprising at least one radiator unit, wherein the radiator unit includes at least two lobes, two of the at least two lobes facing to and hermetically attaching to each other, and at least one through hole disposed in the middle part of the two lobes along the height thereof.
 2. The radiator as claimed in claim 1, wherein the radiator unit is formed integrally, and each of the lobes has tooth-like outside surface, and each of the through holes has corrugated inner wall.
 3. The radiator as claimed in claim 1, wherein the radiator comprises two or more radiator units arranged side by side, and the radiator further comprises an inlet port disposed on the first radiator unit to make refrigerating medium flow into the first radiator unit, an outlet port disposed on the last radiator unit to make the refrigerating medium flow out of the last radiator unit, and a upper one-way channel and a lower one-way channel attached to their respective radiator units for communicating one radiator unit with one of its neighbor, to make the refrigerating medium flow from the inlet port to the outlet port in one direction.
 4. The radiator as claimed in claim 3, wherein the upper one-way channel has a number of grooves on the surface opposite to the radiator units to which it attached, the inner space of the channel is separated by several spacers to form a number of passages for the refrigerating medium and is blocked by several block pieces to divide the grooves into several two-groove sets.
 5. The radiator as claimed in claim 4, wherein the number of the grooves corresponds to the number of radiator units to which the upper one-way channel attached, and the number of the passages corresponds to the number of the through holes of the radiator units.
 6. The radiator as claimed in claim 3, wherein the lower one-way channel has a number of grooves on the surface opposite to the radiator units to which it attached, the inner space of the channel is separated by several spacers to form a number of passages for the refrigerating medium and is blocked by several block pieces to divide the grooves into several two-groove sets.
 7. The radiator as claimed in claim 6, wherein the number of the grooves corresponds to the number of radiator units to which the lower one-way channel attached, and the number of the passages corresponds to the number of the through holes of the radiator units.
 8. A condenser used in an air conditioning refrigeration system, comprising at least one condenser unit, wherein the condenser unit includes at least two lobes, two of the at least two lobes facing to and hermetically attaching to each other, and at least one through hole disposed in the middle part of the two lobes along the height thereof.
 9. The condenser as claimed in claim 8, wherein the condenser unit is formed integrally, and each of the lobes has tooth-like outside surface, and each of the through holes has corrugated inner wall.
 10. The condenser as claimed in claim 8, wherein the condenser comprises two or more condenser units arranged side by side, and the condenser further comprises an inlet port disposed on the first condenser unit to make refrigerating medium flow into the first condenser unit, an outlet port disposed on the last condenser unit to make the refrigerating medium flow out of the last condenser unit, and a upper one-way channel and a lower one-way channel attached to their respective condenser units for communicating one condenser unit with one of its neighbor, to make the refrigerating medium flow from the inlet port to the outlet port in one direction.
 11. The condenser as claimed in claim 10, wherein the upper one-way channel has a number of grooves on the surface opposite to the condenser units to which it attached, the inner space of the channel is separated by several spacers to form a number of passages for the refrigerating medium and is blocked by several block pieces to divide the grooves into several two-groove sets.
 12. The condenser as claimed in claim 11, wherein the number of the grooves corresponds to the number of condenser units to which the upper one-way channel attached, and the number of the passages corresponds to the number of the through holes of the condenser units.
 13. The condenser as claimed in claim 10, wherein the lower one-way channel has a number of grooves on the surface opposite to the condenser units to which it attached, the inner space of the channel is separated by several spacers to form a number of passages for the refrigerating medium and is blocked by several block pieces to divide the grooves into several two-groove sets.
 14. The condenser as claimed in claim 13, wherein the number of the grooves corresponds to the number of condenser units to which the lower one-way channel attached, and the number of the passages corresponds to the number of the through holes of the condenser units.
 15. A radiator unit used to form a radiator, comprising at least two lobes, two of the at least two lobes facing to and hermetically attaching to each other, and at least one through hole disposed in the middle part of the two lobes along the height thereof.
 16. The radiator unit as claimed in claim 15, wherein the radiator unit is formed integrally, and each of the lobes has tooth-like outside surface, and each of the through holes has corrugated inner wall.
 17. A condenser unit used to form a condenser, comprising at least two lobes, two of the at least two lobes facing to and hermetically attaching to each other, and at least one through hole disposed in the middle part of the two lobes along the height thereof
 18. The condenser unit as claimed in claim 17, wherein the condenser unit is formed integrally, and each of the lobes has tooth-like outside surface, and each of the through holes has corrugated inner wall. 